The managerial ethos, the relentless drive for numerical growth, the accommodation of visitors’ comfort—all these made some white evangelicals nervous. Yet in ways that even many critics of the CGM often didn’t realize, these concerns had racial implications. Black evangelicals such as the community organizer and “racial reconciliation” activist John Perkins were particularly concerned about how the pursuit of success in a racist society came at great cost to black people.104 What did it mean for a church to be successful in a moment in which the white middle class was willing to sell their
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